Perfect.
“Nighty-night,” said Williams, and as I struggled against his grip, he slammed the butt of his rifle into my temple, sending me spiraling back into darkness.
* * *
Voices murmured around me, and cold hands pulled at my bad shoulder, sending a white-hot shock of pain down my arm. I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry, but I could make out a shadowy figure standing in front of me, while two others hauled me to my feet.
“Knox?” I mumbled. My head pounded, and the world seemed distorted, as if I were looking at it through a piece of curved glass.
The shadowy figure didn’t answer me. Instead he called out, “Ready in five, four, three, two, one...”
A buzzer went off above my head, and the two figures on either side of me shoved me upward through a trapdoor, into bright light that might as well have shoved shards of glass into my eyeballs. A strange whooshing sound echoed in my ears, louder than it probably was thanks to the pounding in my head, and I squinted enough to see the opening in the floor close up completely.
What was going on?
Tears flooded my eyes, but I forced them open, and slowly my vision swam into focus. I was on some kind of platform at least six feet off the ground, with looming gray buildings surrounding it. Weak morning light filtered through the clouds, but there was something else above me, too.
Metal bars.
My chest tightened, and suddenly I could barely breathe.
I was in the cage.
“Kitty?” said a trembling voice only a few feet away. I turned my head slowly, and my heart dropped to my knees.
His face was covered in purple bruises, and his lank hair hung in his eyes as he hunched over, cradling his ribs, but I would have recognized him anywhere.
Benjy.
XV
THE CAGE
“Benjy?” My voice sounded weak and muffled, and I wasn’t sure if it was me or the concussion. “What—”
He limped across the cage and collapsed beside me, wrapping his arms around me the same way Elliott had embraced Noelle. I hugged him back with my good arm, and as I looked over his shoulder, the rest of the world came into focus.
Hundreds of prisoners in red and orange jumpsuits stood around the platform, staring up at us with blank expressions on their faces. But something wasn’t right—the sun was coming in from the wrong direction. It was still morning.
I looked up at the rooftop where Mercer stood, tall and proud and holding his automatic weapon with a sneer. Hannah stood beside him, and even from a distance, I could see the cuts and bruises decorating her face. Even if she’d managed to make it look like I’d injured her while escaping, there was no way she could have done that amount of damage to herself.
Mercer knew she’d let me go. And this was her punishment.
This was our punishment.
“Benjy,” I whispered. He was warm and solid against me, and I closed my eyes, breathing in his scent. So this was it. This was how we were going to die.
I exhaled, and relief crept through me, numbing the pain from my head and shoulder. I’d never had a chance of surviving Elsewhere, and Benjy was always paying for my mistakes, too. But we were together, and now there would be no more wondering when the final axe would drop.
“I’m sorry.” I kissed his stubbly cheek, and his grip around me tightened.
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he whispered. “I love you, and I would rather die with you than live a single day without you. This is exactly how I want to spend my last seconds—with you.”
I buried my face in the crook of his neck and took a slow, deep breath. I was okay. We were okay. Death was inevitable, and this was our time.
“This is your only warning,” called Mercer, but his voice sounded distant, as if he were somewhere at the other end of a long tunnel. My fingers curled around Benjy’s jacket.
“You know where we’re going to be when we wake up?” I whispered. “In a field by our lake, tangled together under the warm sun. There’s going to be a picnic basket full of all kinds of food, and we’re going to have our cottage together, right next to our lake.”
Something warm and wet dripped down my cheek. I couldn’t tell if it was Benjy’s tears or mine.
“It’ll be perfect,” I murmured as the click of Mercer’s rifle echoed through the square. “Just you and me for the rest of forever.”
“I can’t wait,” he said, and though his voice was rough, I could hear his smile.
Bang.
Everything went gray. We both tensed, and Benjy curled around me instinctively, shielding my body from the shot. But it was half a second too late. Time seemed to stand still, and in that infinite moment, I waited for pain to blossom.
It never did.
Maybe this was what dying was like. Maybe, in our last moments, our bodies gave us a chance at peace, and the pain of death would never register at all.
Bang.
A second shot rang out, and this time a chorus of screams rose from the crowd. Benjy jerked me toward the center of the cage, and I cried out in pain.
“What—”
On the rooftop, Mercer had dropped his weapon and doubled over. Hannah was on the far side of the building, huddled in the corner and covering her head with her arms. The crowd around us continued to scream, trampling each other in an attempt to get out of the square.
“Lie flat!” said Benjy, and he shoved me to the floor, once again covering my body with his. My face pressed against the cold platform, and several more shots rang out.
It wasn’t until I saw a group of prisoners running toward us with weapons drawn that I understood.
The rebellion had begun.
The smell of gunpowder permeated the air around us as shot after shot echoed through the square. Most of the prisoners managed to run from the fighting, but even from my narrow vantage point, I spotted several bodies lying motionless on the ground. The guards surrounding the platform fired back, but they were hopelessly outnumbered, and soon the gunfire ended.
“Lila!” called a woman, and it took me a moment to realize the voice was coming from underneath me.
The trapdoor in the platform opened. Scotia. “In here,” she said. “Hurry, before the rest of the guards come.”
Benjy lifted himself off me and shoved me down into the holding area. Scotia caught me, and he quickly joined us, breathing heavily as he collapsed beside me.
“What’s going on? Are the Blackcoats here?” I said. Had Knox come back after all?
Scotia shook her head and began to reload her weapons. “The cavalry’s taking their sweet time, but you got us the codes, so consider us even.” She gave Benjy a handgun. “Know how to use this?”